Sindhi showcased as a regional language at Hyderabad Literary Festival January 2025

In January 2025, the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) featured Sindhi as its regional language — a gesture that meant a great deal to us, as there is no region in India today that Sindhi is native to. At noon on the festival’s opening day, scholars Rita Kothari , Nandita Bhavnani, and moderator Soni Wadhwa led a deeply engaging discussion titled Fragmented Selves: Sindhi Language, Literature and History.

Their conversation traced the journeys of Sindhi identity, displacement, and memory. Rita reflected on her students’ growing interest in Sindh Studies; Nandita shared insights from her research, including her 2003 visit to Sindh, where she realised how many pre-Partition trends were already shaping the changes that Partition later intensified. The audience — both Sindhi and non-Sindhi — joined in with thoughtful questions and perspectives.

Later that afternoon, Anju Makhija and Menka Shivdasani  spoke in a session on Story, Voice, and Verse, reading from their English translations of Sindhi poetry. Moderator Soni Wadhwa closed by reading a Sindhi poem herself, to the audience’s delight.

That evening, delegates gathered for a dinner hosted by the Lithuanian Embassy — a warm opportunity for exchange among participants including Nandita Bhavnani, Rita Kothari, Menka Shivdasani, Anju Makhija, Subhadra Anand, and Saaz Aggarwal, with festival directors Vijay Kumar Tadakamalla and Amita Desai, and Lithuanian Ambassador Her Excellency Diana Mickevičienė.

A Shared Heritage — in Hyderabad, India

What moved me most was how the Sindh Courier covered the event. Its editor, Nasir Aijaz, wrote that the festival took place in “Indian Hyderabad” — because of course, there is another Hyderabad, in Sindh, where many of our ancestors came from. My mother was born and grew up there, and experienced firsthand the loss that Partition brought. How poignant, then, that the first Indian literary festival to celebrate Sindhi should be in a city of that same name.

Even so, the irony remained: the HLF banner had Sindhi written in Devanagari script, because few on this side of the border can now read the original Sindhi script.

Our Session: Rediscovering a Scattered Identity

On 26 January, Subhadra Anand and I (Saaz Aggarwal) spoke on Little-Known Aspects of Sindhi Culture — touching on:

• The prejudice and stereotypes Sindhis still face.
• The Partition experience, and how little of Sindh finds mention in mainstream Partition narratives.
• The irony of this neglect, given Sindh’s multi-faith culture, its early global trade networks, and its scattering a century before Partition.
• The loss of history and language, alongside the poetry, philosophy, and visual and performing arts that shaped Sindh.
• The Sindhi community’s enduring qualities: adaptability, resilience, hard work, hospitality, and philanthropy.
• And the ongoing efforts to restore cultural identity, including Dr. Anand’s ambitious Jhulelal Tirthdham project in Kachchh.

It was a privilege to share the stage with friends and colleagues who have long worked to preserve and reinterpret Sindhi culture — and to witness the growing recognition of Sindh’s place in India’s and the world’s story.

Read more: Sindh Courier coverage of the Hyderabad Literary Festival